Oil Pressure Cooking

Cooking Under Pressure

I may have told parts of  this story so I'll be brief.  When I was a kid we went to a corner restaurant that was supposedly serving the best fried chicken in the world, and it was.  After dinner the owner began to schmooze with my mom, who schmoozed  with everybody, and  told  how he came to learn this fabulous recipe.  It seems a guy showed up one day and offered to make him the best chicken he'd ever had.   He brought in his paraphernalia / supplies, and went to work.  "He cooked it in a pressure cooker, but in oil, " our host exclaimed.  The idea horrified my mother.   Cooking oil in a pressure cooker was, well - you might as well just drop that atom bomb, because it was gonna explode and kill everyone.  Never would try it herself, although we tried..  She would remind us, when we pestered her, that the man said the key was in the secret herbs and spices, not the pressure cooker, and then the killer, "I thought you loved my chicken?"   The traveling cook, you've  probably surmised, was Mr. H. Sanders, not yet a Kentucky Colonel. Her attitude about pressure cookers and oil stayed with me, until I found this.. “ My questions: Can we safely use our home pressure cookers with oil to pressure cook chicken, or other foods? If so are any modifications necessary? Where do we find directions and pressures to use and recipes? If not safe to do so; What is the danger? Cliff Answers: About cooking chicken in a regular pressure cooker: I do it all the time. I cook all kinds of meat, but I find frying chicken by this method quite tasty and flavorful. Here's how you do it ” I just tried it, and holy crap, it is pretty close to what KFC Chicken was once, but hasn't been for over 40 years.  Get your destructions above, but here's  some pictures of my experience.  Oh, Mother Superior agrees that this chicken is way, way good.  Now that I have the drill down, I can turn out a batch in about 20 minutes. This dinner prolly cost me $2.00, and that includes mashed taters and homemade slaw - all better than KFC. Each picture is a rollover to save space. TOP PHOTO - Heat oil to 350°. FLIP PHOTO - The technique I use is to soak the chicken in milk.  That prepares the skin to hold onto the coating.  I dredge the chicken in my flour, shake off the excess, immerse it into a egg/milk bath and dredge again, shaking off excess.  This should  produce a  crispy crust. You can skip the second layer if you like. TOP PHOTO - Five breaded thighs at rest. FLIP PHOTO - As soon as the oil reached 350° I put in the chicken.  I was able to get 5 pieces in during practice, but once the first piece goes into hot oil,  there's so much bubbling going on that you can't see to place the pieces with any precision.  This resulted in some mild sticking of the crusts.  Let it cook like this for a minute, ( remove the thermometer) then put the lid on.. TOP PHOTO - It took maybe 3-4 minutes for the bobber thing to start bobbing and hissing,  At that point I reduced the heat to medium and set the timer to 10 minutes. FLIP PHOTO - I was distracted by something so it was probably 11-12 minutes before I put the cooker in a sink filled with water and hosed it down.  Took about 30 seconds for the pressure to relieve.  TOP PHOTO - The oil is still boiling when you remove the pressure cooker cover.  If you want to make another batch, just add a few TBSP of oil and you're half-way there. FLIP PHOTO - Here's the product.  Looks pretty darn good to me, but I think one minute less and it's perfect. TOP PHOTO - Here's another benefit.  Look how clean that oil is. FLIP PHOTO - Here's where I said a bad word.  Was putting it in the oven (170°) to keep warmish until dinner when it slipped .... .  Of course there's no way I could  serve it now, so I threw it all out and made another batch that looks exactly like this one.  :)   PS- The chicken was in the oven for about 90 minutes before we ate it. The meat was tender and moist; the crust, near perfect.